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If you were paying attention — the numbers suggest you likely weren’t — you might’ve noticed just how incredibly boring last week was in the trading pits. Watching markets felt like a warm glass of milk sitting through your neighbor’s vacation slideshow.

The Nasdaq’s rally to March 2000 levels and Google’s 10-year IPO birthday have cast a nostalgic light on markets so far this week. And the way things are going these days (up, a lot) nostalgia seems to be suiting traders just fine.

The S&P, after a rough stretch, is now within a whisper of another record; Apple has entered uncharted territory; and Fed Chair Janet Yellen is about to unleash the doves on a receptive Teton audience.

The market’s pulse has quickened in the past few days, and that’s a good thing, at least when it comes to writing financial news. It’s not so bad for those looking to sneak into this rally at discount prices, either. In the past couple sessions, we’ve seen a wave of conviction-less sellers drag indexes down early, only to be trumped by dip-buyers. The bulls are proving to be an impervious bunch.

The S&P banged out its 19th record high of the year on Monday before stalling out in yesterday’s session. That pushed the index past the 18 closing highs scored for the entirety of 1992 into 13th place for all time, according to Ryan Detrick.

The leader in the clubhouse is a whopping 77 times in 1995. Baby steps. The next one — 22 in 1991 — could fall by next week. Needless to say, don’t count it out. There’s a round number on the horizon for the Dow, and when those kind of plateaus beckon, the market usually obliges.

FOMO — not to be confused with YOLO or LMFAO — is a hashtaggy acronym for “Fear Of Missing Out.”

BuzzFeed describes it as “the insidious ghost hand of fun that reaches its cold skeletal claw on your shoulder when you’re at a bar and see your Twitter timeline full of friends tweeting about being at karaoke.”

But, for grownups with a job, a family and a retirement to consider, it’s also a factor when it comes to investor psychology. Especially when we’re trying to navigate one of the most distrusted and maligned rallies of all time.

Ryan Detrick of Schaeffer’s Trading points out that it’s now been more than 2.5 years since the S&P 500 has endured a 10% correction. It usually happens about once every eight months. Except, of course, for the 1990s. While we were busy wearing Zubaz pants and singing along with Hanson’s “Mmmbop”, the market went seven years without a double-digit stumble.

This whole week, in terms of volume and volatility, has felt like a session before a three-day weekend. Now, we finally get the actual session before the three-day weekend and the stock market is blowing up. No, not really. We’ve still got one foot in a tar pit and one in quicksand.

That nifty triple-digit rally from yesterday is spilling over into the predawn market this morning. Chalk it up to… something. Or other. Or not.

“Just as there were no great explanations behind Tuesday’s pullback, yesterday’s bounce lacked any notable catalysts,” Credit Suisse writes. “This put some of the focus back on the notion that the path of least resistance remains to the upside, with the combination of better recovery traction and investor angst”

The small-cap disconnect. Stubbornly low interest rates. The lack of volatility. If these were songs, Katy Perry would be singing them. They’ve been on loop for weeks now. Can’t escape them. Or, really, figure out how they could possibly last this long.

And with the confusion, bears are getting edgier with each passing day that doesn’t deliver the satisfying plunge.

Get ready for a crazy ride. An adrenaline-fueled earnings trip that will take you through the ins and outs of some of the biggest U.S. companies — General Electric, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, just to name a few.

About Need to Know

Need to Know (NTK) guides investors to the most important, insightful items required to chart a course ahead of each trading day. Anchored by lead writer Shawn Langlois, NTK will sift through the fire hose of news, commentary and data, from traditional and non-traditional sources, and extract what’s most essential. You can start reading NTK here as it begins publishing at approximately 6:30 a.m. ET, or sign up here to get a version in your email box every morning at approximately 8:45. a.m. ET.